Method of making shoe soles



Dec.. 12, 1944. w o CAGNEY 2,364,691

METHOD OF MAKING SHOE SOLES Filed Dec. 14, 1942 a, WM WW Patented Dec. 12, 1944 METHOD oF MAKING SHOE SOLES Warren Oakley. Cagney, Garden City, N. Y., as-v signor to Cagney-Storer, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York ApplicationDecember 14, 1942, Serial No. 468,970

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to a shoe sole and method of making the same.

An object of the invention is to provide a shoe sole formed of wood or similar bodily rigid material, but which will be extremely flexible.

Another object of the inventionis to provide a shoe sole which includes no leather.

In the designing of a sole formed of wood and which is nevertheless flexible to accommodate the bending of the foot which occurs during walking, the usual procedure has been to provide a number of wood sections on the sole to enable it to bend at any one of a number of points. However, if a wood sole is to have the bending characteristics of a leather sole, it is also desirable that while it may sharply bend at nec-.

essary points, the sections immediately adjacent the sharp bend must assume a position along a gradually curved line. For example, at

the moment during walking when the weight of the foot rests upon the toe, a shoe bends sharply just behind the toe, and the portion of the sole immediately behind this sharp bond is bent along a gradually curved line.

It is quite obvious that previously designed wooden soles formed of only several wooden sections cannot simulate the characteristics of a leather sole in the above respect. It is also clear that wooden soles which do not bend on lines extending at right angles to the length of the sole will not have the above desirable characteristic.

Another desideratum of a wooden sole must be to so connect the wooden sections, or so form them with respect to each other, that while adjacent sections may bend with respect to each other, no section may move directly upwardly or translationally or tilt laterally with respect to the immediately adjacent sections. Otherwise, if one section bears upon a small stone or other protuberance, that section alone will press upwardly upon the foot, resulting in discomfort. It will be appreciated that because leather soles are relatively thick, they avoid this objection because the pressure of any protuberance on the ground is at least distributed over a wide area.

One principal objection to forming a wooden sole of a large number of small sections is that while they may bend with respect to each other' J'acent sections.

,acteristics of leather.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a sole formed of wood and which includes no leather, but which has the desirable bending but non-translationally movable char- A further object of the inventionis to provide a sole formed of wood sections which are so supported with'respect toeach other and of such relative design that while free bending on cross-wise lines ispermitted, no translational movement or lateral tilting of one section with respect to an immediately adjacent section can occur. I

The above mentioned object of providing a sole which will bend is obtained in the present invention by forming the'sole of a layer of wood which is so grooved on its undersurface that one section may bend upwardly with respect to adjacent sections and by applying a backing of heavy fabric such as canvas or other bendable or backing of canvasor other bendable material discussed above. However, by the present invention, upward translational movement and lateral tilting of one section with respect to the next adjacent one is further prevented by reason of the fact that the wooden tread of the sole is so constructed as to avoid such movement. More particularly, by the present invention, the wooden sole is initially in the form of one or morestrips of wood divided crosswise by grooves which do not extend entirely to the upper surface of the strip. In other words, an unbroken area is strip. Before the sole is applied to a shoe, the

'strip may be broken by bending at several of the Furtherdividing grooves between the sections. more, during walking the wood strip maybe broken by the bending of the wearers foot and to suit the requirements of the foot. In any event, I have found that by careful selection of the type of wood used in the sole, the breaking of the strip will always occur on irregular vertical lines if the wood is of proper characteristics.

That is, breaking will not occur on straight lines laterally with respect to an immediately adja cent section.

Another object of the a wooden shoe sole which is so, formed on its lower surface that slippage will be prevented" and good traction can be obtained under all conditions. l

A further object of the invention is to provide a method whereby wooden soles of the desired design may be formed from blanks with a minimum waste of material and at a high rate of production. I

I have found thatit is undesirable to form a wooden sole from a strip of wood having its grain running lengthwise of the strip if the strip has a width .comparable to the length of the sole, because wood of this width with 1ongitudinally extending graining is extremely apt to be warped. The use of warped wood would naturally result in discomfort to the wearer.

By the present invention,'the sole is preferably formed of two strips of wood, each of such width as to obviatethe possibility of the wood being warped. placed side by'side with their graining parallel and the forward portion of a sole is cut from one strip while the rear portion'is cut from the other strip. By maintaining the two strips in close contact, no gap will'be provided'in the sole.

In order to assure that the entirewooden sole will be properly supported by the backing material regardless of the fact that the sole is formed from two separate strips of wood, the present method involves cementing both strips of wood tocanvas or other backing, and with their edges in close contact, before cuttingout the soles. In thisway, the completesole including the wooden tread portion and the backing is provided in one operationand without the necessity of having to carefully fit a backing element to the wood after the cutting operation.

It is desirable that the toe portion of the wood sole'have a somewhat different bottom surface configuration from the remaining portions of the" sole. This necessitates having one edge of the wood from which a' sole is cut provided with a special formation. Ordinarily, if the soles were formed of two strips; as heretofore has been stated to be desirable,"it would be necessary to form one of these strips to-include a toe portion while the other strip would include notoe portion. In other words, two types of parentstrips would have to be provided. By the method included in the present invention, both strips have the same formation, and they are placed together on the backingmaterial with the toe forming portions at the outer edges of the material; Then the cutting is so performed that alternate soles cut'from the strip will face in opposite directions; Thus, the toe of the one sole will be formed from the toe portion of one strip while the toe of the next adjacent sole will be formed from the toe portion of the other strip. In addition 'to' avoiding the necessity ofinvention. is to provide In manufacture, the. two strips are 'tion may be curved upwardly to form a rigid arched. instep for the shoe or sandal.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawing I and following specification.

In the drawing, Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of a sole of the present invention. I

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the sole.

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical section of a I fragment of a sole before breaking between sechaving these characteristics.

Figure 7 shows two strips such as illustrated v in Figure 5 mounted upon a layer of backing material, and the manner of exerting pressure thereon; and

Figure 8 shows the manner of cutting soles from the wood and fabricassembly of Figure '7. I, The shoe sole of the present invention is formed from strips l0 formed of a wood which is hard. close-grained, and which will break on irregular lines. Birch, maple, poplar, or cherry, are woods Thestrips iii are ordinarily in 'three foot lengths and have a width of approximately 5%", although the width I may vary according to the size of the soles to be formed. The grain runs lengthwise of the face ll forms the upper face of the wooden elehighin a strip about in thickness.

ment of a sole. The opposite surface I3 ofthe strip I0 is flat and ungrooved over an area I4 extending from one edge 15 and which area is approximately 1" to 1 5 wide. The remainder of the surface I3 is formed intoequidistantly spaced substantiallyfhalf round ridges It, as best shown in the fragment of a completed sole shown in Figure 3. As an' example, each ridge I6 is in width between each of its bases l1, and, with this width, would be about It will thus be seen that a ridge l6 is-not acomplete semi-circle, and that an ungrooved thickness of it exists between the bases ll of the ridges and the opposite and scored surface ll. As also shown in Figure3, the bases of the ridges need not join each-other, but are preferably separated by fiat portions I8 which are usually about wide.

After'a strip H] has been, milled to the form described above, preferably by a planing ma- 2,364,691 side by side in the relation illustrated in Figure 8,

i. e., with the ungrooved areas I4 outermost, and with the opposite edges I9 of the strips in close contact. The two strips thus assembled are then placed upon a sheet of fabric 20, such as heavy duck, for example, 18 oz. duck. However, press cloth, or filter cloth may be used as a backing element if this element is formed of a fabric. Use of a fabric is not necessary, since any bodily flexible material may be used for this purpose, for example, any resinous or nitrocellulose material which is bodily flexible.

The assembled structure is then placed in a veneer press for approximately 24 hours, in order that the fabric and wood strips willbe permanently secured together. It is to be noted that the two strips I have their edges I 6 in close contact with each other on the layer of fabric, so that no space will be provided between these edges of the strips.

It is highly desirable to form the soles from two strips I0 which are each of a width approximately one-half the length of the sole, instead of from a single strip of a. width approximating the length of the sole. that a strip of wood as thin as that used and having the substantial width required to producethe full length of a sole would be very apt to be warped, which would make the final sole uncomfortable. The use of strips IU of the width referred to above obviates warped material.

After the assembly shown in Figures 7 and 8 is removed from the veneer press, the soles of the present invention are cut from it by means of a band-saw. Figure 8 shows the method of cutting the strips, and it will be observed from this that alternate soles cut from the strip extend in opposite directions. More particularly, the toe portion 2| of one sole 22 is cut from the ungrooved portion I4 of the left-hand strip Ill, While the toe portion of the next adjacent sole 22 is out from the ungrooved portion I4 of the other strip II). In this way, a maximum number of sole can be cut from a blank formed of two strips I 0. In addition, (by having the soles extend oppositely, the strips ED can be of identical form, that is, both strips may be formed with ungrooved portions I4, instead of having one strip formed with an ungrooved portion I4, and the other strip provided over its entire surface I3 with half round ridges.

After the soles 22 have been cut out as just described, the upper surface of the fabric is buffed to provide a good bonding surface for'joining to a shoe or sandal. The upper surface of the fabric may be cemented to an insole or to a platform. In each case bufiing is essential.

Staples 24 of U-shaped form are driven into some of the ridge portions of the sole 22, with the point of the staples entering the fabric 20. Thus, the heads of the staples will be embedded in the fabric, and no metal will project into the tread or wear surface of the sole formed of the ridges or shoulders I6. It is ordinarily only necessary to drive staples into the portion of the sole formed by the several ridges I 6 which will be beneath the ball of the wearers foot, as indicated in Figures 1 and 2.

In order to permit the sole to be attached to .an upper designed for a sole which is curved gradually upwardly toward the toe, the sole 22 may be bent to break it between the ridges which will be beneath the ball of the foot, namely, the ridges indicated by the letter A in Figure l.

The edges of the wood or tread element I 0a This is due to the fact of sole 22 may be sanded to the rounded form shown in Figure 1.

When closely grained, hard wood, such as birch, maple, poplar, or cherry is used, any breaking of the joints betweenthe ridges I6 will be along irregular lines, a indicated at M in Figure 4. When the soles of the presentinvention are placed in actual use, the joints between ridges will break at other points according to the walking requirements of the wearer, but these breaks will also !be' along irregular lines. As a result, when the sole is in use, it will be impossible for any ridge to move vertically or translationally or to tilt laterally with respect to the next adjacent ridge. More particularly, if one ridge bears upon a protuberanc in the ground or upon a small stone, it cannot move upwardly because, in effect, it will be interlocked at I8 with the next adjacent ridges by the small abutting shoulders formed in the opposite walls of the break I8. This resistance to translational movement and lateral tilting of any ridge will be assisted because the entire material of the wooden tread surface is held closely together in a direction lengthwise-of the sole by the nature of the fabric backing element 20a. Nevertheless, the irregular linesof breaking will not prevent one ridge portion of a sole from tilting upwardly on the break line with respect to an adjacent ridge portion. Also, when bending of the sole on a transverse line occurs during walking, the sole will be free to bend sharply upwardly at any point and the ridge portions adjacent the sharp bend may bend gradually. A sole will naturally be bent to this shape when the weightv of the foot is placed upon the toe, that is, a sharp bend in the sole occurs immediately behind the toe and the portion of the sole immediately to the rear has a gradual bend imparted thereto.

As clearly shown in Figures 1 and 2, the toe I la of a sole 22 is flat and ungrooved on its lower or tread surface, due to the fact that it is formed from the ungrooved portion, !4 of a strip I0.

Hence, the toe of the sole cannot bend upon itself,

as is the case with the remainder of the sole. I have found that if the toe of a sole is permitted to bend upon itself, walking is somewhat more difficult, since when the weight of the foot is exerted through the toes, the downward pressure isexerted at two spots, one at the outer ends of the toes, and the other at the bases of the toes. The toe of a leather shoe sole will not bend uJpwardly between these points while the toe of the shoe is bearing all weight. The present sole gives the same desirable and non-bending support at the toe portion by the use of the non-bendable section I 4a. Portion I la is of sufficient length sponding shape of the parent strips I0 best illustrated in Figure 6. This surface 25 assures adel quate traction in soft ground at the time that the wearers weight is being shifted from his rearward foot to his forward foot. Sufficient traction will be obtained at all other times by the rounded ridges I6, due to the fact that at any time when traction, is exerted by these ridges, at least several of them will be bearing upon the surface being walked upon.

By separating the :bases I! of the rounded ridge l6 by the spacing portion l8,.full use is obtained of the tractive or cleat effects of the sides Ilia. of the ridges or shoulders iii. In addi tion, because the spacing portions l8 space the rearwardly facing sides I60. of the ridges, better traction will be had in soft or rough ground since a. larger area of such ground will be accommodated between the ridges and hence will be Slllbject to pressure. Likewise, dirt will not be retained in the larger space thus provided between the ridges. Nevertheless, the spacing portions l8 insure that every portion of the backing element 20a will have a portion of the wood element lOa in contact therewith. That is, if the ridges l were simply spaced along the fabric element 20a by a distance corresponding to the width of thespacing portions IS, the intervening fabric could buckle and would be directly exposed to dirt and moisture. Furthermore, any ridge l5 could move upwardly and translationally or tilt laterally with respect to immediately adjacent ridges.

The provision of rounded ridges [Bis desirable because they eliminate sharp corners which might readily catch upon projections.

Throughout the greater portion of the foregoing, only the use of woodto form the tread element Ilia has been discussed. However, it will be obvious that other bodily rigid, i. e., nonbending, materials, preferably having the same irregular breaking characteristics, could be used.

If it is desired to use a sole of the present 'inven-- tion with a rubber heel, the heel portion of the sole 22 can be entirely omitted and the reainder then used with a rubber heel or any other desired heel structure. sole 22 would remain to provide the instep of the final shoe or sandal or, alternatively, even the instep portion of the present sole can be omitted so that the completed shoe or sandal would be fitted only with a toe and ball portion constructed in accordance with this invention. Where only the toe and ball are formed. in accordance with this invention, only one strip in need be used to opposed surfaces of the adjacent ridges will re- In such cases, sufiicient of the cede from each other from their top portions, i. e., their portions adjacent backing element 20a. to their bottom portions. Because of this, each ridge is free to bend downwardly with respect to the next adjacent ridge. Hence, if longitudinal pressure is exerted upon a sole when its tread surface is facing downwardly, the sole will arch slightly upwardly so that the side or opposed surfacesof each adjacentridge come into contact with each other, forming a rigid arch. This characteristic may be used to form a rigid instep, particularly when a shoe is to be provided with 'a raised heel. More particularly, if the sole is placed upon a shoe in such manner that the instep portion of the sole is subjected to longitudinal pressure, the instep portion will arch to form a rigid instep. In this way, a novel form of wooden-soled shoe, including an arched instep, may be formed from a normally flat sole of the present type, and without the necessity of initially shaping asolid wood blank to form an arch.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present invention provides a sole which has qualities of flexibility and comfort very'favorably comparable with those of a leather sole. Nevertheless, the sole need include no leather.

The terminology used in the specification is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, the scope of the invention being indicated by the claim. V

I claim:

The method of making a shoe sole including a tread element formed of bodily rigid material comprising grooving a strip of the rigid material of a width substantially equal to half the length of the sole to be formed, with the grooves extending longitudinally of the strip, the portion of the strip adjacent one edge thereof being left ungrooved, securing two of the strips in side by side relation to a layer of bendable material with their grooves parallel and their ungrooved portions outermost, and cutting the soles from the strip material and bendable material along such lines that the length of each sole will extend trans-. versely to the grooves and so that alternate soles will extend in opposite directions and each will have its toe portion form-ed of the ungrooved surface of an alternate strip.

WARREN OAKLEY CAGNE Y. 

